Photographer Chen Haiwen’s solo exhibition, which sheds light on China’s 56 ethnic groups, is underway through July 6 at the West Bund Art Center.

More than 500 photos are on display — the payback for all the hard work the 63-year-old photographer has put into this 260,000-kilometer odyssey that stretched for 12 years, trekking through the country’s 28 provinces and regions, 554 cities and counties, and 1,531 ethnic cultural heirs.

“I found there was no complete, systematic records of images, photos or drawings after 1949, which shocked me and prompted me to do something as a photographer,” said Chen, a Shanghai native.

There are 56 ethnic groups with varied traditions and lifestyles in different parts of China. To depict precisely each group, Chen thumbed through seas of documents and archives about the ethnic groups’ customs, architecture, religions, costumes, totems, music and languages.

And it slowly came into focus for him as to how to do the project.

“I glimpsed a family photo at home one day, which greatly inspired me,” he recalled.

“Family is the cornerstone that constitutes Chinese traditional society and the bottom color that paints the Chinese culture.

“The best way to take a picture of an ethnic group is in a family photo.”

In a texture of oil on canvas, ethnic people in Chen’s lens take on a placid, solemn and poetic quality.

“I don’t like the invasive way to take pictures. Instead, I photographed them as if they were my relatives,” he said.

The photos unfold an entirely new and mysterious world for urban dwellers.

Hani and Yi people in Yunnan Province paint their faces and bodies to worship the God of Fire; Zhuang people walk on stilts to fish in the sea; Tibetans worship on bended knees on their pilgrimage; and Kazakhs in Xinjiang ride on horseback to herd sheep between valleys.

“They are us. I respect and treat them as my family members,” Chen said.

And they also treated him with the best things they had.

Once he ventured into a mountaineer’s hut of battered furniture. His only shelter from the wind and the sun.

The man treated Chen with the tea leaves he carefully wrapped up in a handkerchief and locked back in a drawer.

“It’s the best thing he had for a guest,” the photographer recalled. “His life was simple with almost no material desire, but he was content. Everyone has his own standard for happiness.

“We should not judge by the way we live.”

It was a tough task to photograph Han group with the biggest population and largest territories in China.

Chen chose some of the iconic locations, such as Xianyang in Shaanxi Province — once the capital of Qin empire (221-207BC), China’s first feudal dynasty, and the Hukou Waterfall of the Yellow River, China’s mother river.

But he finally decided to shoot in front of the Chongguang Gate of the Confucius Mansion in Qufu in Shandong Province.

The descendants of Confucius in traditional Chinese dresses and suits gathered for the camera at the birthplace of the ancient philosopher, whose idea laid foundation of Chinese culture, social ethics, political ideology and scholarly traditions.

Thanks to Chen’s efforts, the photos document those old ways of living before they vanish.

In February, a raging fire burnt down the 400-year-old Wengding Village of Wa ethnic group in Yunnan Province, China’s last remaining primitive tribe.

Fortunately, Chen had taken a complete set of pictures of the village in 2008.

The destroyed historic site lives on in the photos, which are also on display in the exhibition.

Dates: Through July 6, 10am-5pm

Tickets: 30 yuan

Venue: West Bund Art Center

Address: 2555 Longteng Avenue